Many Kerrey Hall residents were outraged by administrators’ decision to open up the gym in their building to all students and have launched a campaign to restrict access to residents only, as it was before.
The reaction came after a Feb. 18 **New School Free Press** story quoted an administrator announcing that the gym would soon open to all students.
That same week, members of the Kerrey Hall Council went door to door in the dorm asking residents to sign a petition to keep the basement gym solely under the use of residents because of security concerns. The next day, the Council tacked up the petitions near the dorms’ elevators.
“Save our space,” one read in big capital letters. “Stop it from being open university wide.”
Administrators have stood by their decision and were confident in the current security
measures, but sympathized with the angered residents.
“If I lived there I wouldn’t be too happy about it,” said Robert Lutomski, the administrator who oversees campus dorms and announced the policy change in the **Free Press**.
“I don’t think I’d be too happy if somebody was coming over to use a space in my home, but you know if it’s family. It’s family. You’re not gonna turn your family away,” he added.
Lutomski laid out the new security measures for students accessing the basement amenities in a March 10 email announcing the expanded access. Non-residents were required to forfeit their school IDs to the front-desk security guards who’d then clear the basement facilities at 6 p.m., he said.
These measures however aren’t enough for some students.
At a Kerrey Hall Council meeting on Feb. 24, members spent the majority of the time discussing what is being done and what could be done in response to the new expanded gym access program.
“This is a huge security threat,” said Alexis Hill, the 13th floor RA. ”How are we going to protect our residents?”
Grace Gall, a Kerrey Hall floor leader, read aloud a letter she sent to President David Van Zandt laying out requests and suggestions about the gym. Many applauded.
Two days later, Van Zandt doubled down on his decision to open the gym during a livechat with the **Free Press** that was broadcast online.
“We are trying a pilot program experiment to open the gym on L2 to the entire community between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.,” he said.
“Of course, foremost in my mind is the importance of the security of our Kerrey Hall residents as well as of the rest of our community. I believe we have that handled, and we would not try it if I did not think that. Let’s give it a try for awhile and see how it works.”
School officials hoped to avoid expanding access to the basement facilities by working out a deal with a nearby private gym.
“We were in negotiations with Planet Fitness that had just opened hoping we could set up a deal with them, but they were kind of averse to any suggestions we had,” Lutomski said.
Talks fizzled so administrators opted for expanding access to the school’s gym, a move Lutomski anticipated would be met with some reluctance.
“Nothing surprises me. My own staff rose up and wanted to know what’s going on,” he said.
But he and his colleagues hope to assuage student concerns with tight security and open communication, he said.
“I’m totally aware that there are a lot of upset students. We’re trying to explain the situation as best we can, making sure they know that really we’re all in this together,” he said.
“We think we got it. We think this system we created is going to work fine and we’ll just watch and see how it goes,” he added.
Amid the vocal opposition to the new policies, some students have said they actively support it.
“Be nice goddamnit!” said Mead Ryder, a Kerrey Hall resident and Drama school sophomore.
“I want to use that gym next year and we all pay for this dorm. It just doesn’t make sense why we wouldn’t open it up to everybody,” he added